I'm in the Druid Castle and I've had to resort togod mode. I would never make it through. They should have had an easy combat choice instead ofjust nightmare mode. Even in god mode you have to stand toe to toe andjust solidly duke it out for 5 minutes on thoseEnglish captains.

The English are a shock after the Crypt because all of a sudden you're surrounded by enemies that are much harder than you are generally accustomed to! Also, my Sneak abilities don't work quite as well, which is no problem since I have bracers that up my Sneak by 20. But I had got to the point where I could meet the enemies in the Crypt pretty much head on, after a Sneak backstab, and the English were another kettle of fish entirely. The English soldiers also apparently have no souls, apparently...wonder if that was a little joke?...so mana was scarcer. But the old backstab, Fire circle and run technique works wonders and I have those Limeys on the run. I've been working on Barcelona for a while.

I had heard that a generalist character would not work but in reality that's what I have. So far I'm doing OK but time will tell - those Druids sound pretty nasty.

Does anyone know where the last 2 Green Ways Crystals are? I hope I haven't missed one. Those are essential for the character bonuses they provide, plus I hate those unfinished quests.

That's good. I was hoping I'd find them all since I didn't find all of the books.

I'm in the Druid Keep right now. I can't believe how quickly the level ups happen in here. Just when I think my character isn't sneaky enough or doesn't have enough fire power, along comes another level or perk. I only hope that 210 in one-handed and 125 in Fire Magic is enough to handle whatever is coming down the turnpike. I've given up on diplomacy - it wasn't any use in the middle part of the game and so got neglected. There is a perk that will give me another 15 or 20 points in speech and I think I have a pair of braces that give 10. That will get me up to about 160. Hope that's enough.

Just hit another of the green crystals in the second zone of the desert...didn't do me much good but you should be happy with the bonuses Hagatha...

My fighter has 235 two-handed, 160 evasion, 70 Tribal magic and assorted points in thief skills and this is at level 37. I wish now that I didn't waste points in the thief skills since none of the locked chests had anything of real value.

I have to do the old "lure and run" with the scorpions, they are very dangerous...

I wish I had put more points into evasion and sneak and less into lockpicking and Ice Magic. 145 in lockpick is obviously more than you need, especially with all those potions around. The only time I have ever used ice magic is against Fire Trolls and Fire Golems, and I didn't need 90 points in it for that! I can think of about 150 skill points I would have put elsewhere if I had known.

Re what skills would I have put those points into - Sneak, for a start - at 120 my thief is getting caught a lot since I finished the Crypt. Even with the bracers of Stealthy Cunning, which as another 20 points. Since Backstab is a personal favourite, that would have been smart. But I didn't know my skill wasn't high enough until I finished the Crypt and then all of a sudden it just wasn't good enough any more. Still, yer basic fire magic spell takes the sting out of getting caught.

I would also have put more into Fire Magic, which is great at higher levels (I'm at 55% knockdown on the Fireball) and some into Evasion as well.

Actually Ice magic isn't totally useless as there are lots of those nasty Fire Golems, and they are pretty much immune to Fire, as you would guess.

Don't know if I would put more in Diplomacy, which is at 110 right now. I know that won't be enough to avoid the final showdown, but for most of the last half of the game there isn't much to say, so I'm probably better off putting those points into one-handed (and that combined with 100 backstab takes out most of the non-magical enemies around and causes some grief even to Golems).

Oh yes - bear in mind that many of the perks give you 15 or 20 points in a particular skill as well, and so they are very useful. And also bear in mind that at a certain point the higher level skill takes two and even three skill points for every point gained - somewhere around 125 points, I think.